


A stroll through Stormwind

by Hedonick



Series: BfA/SL: Interludes [2]
Category: World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft - Various Authors
Genre: Emotional Hurt, Gen, Stormwind City, The Void, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28014210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hedonick/pseuds/Hedonick
Summary: To avoid the events triggered by N’Zoth which he doesn’t feel confident enough to confront, Saewron Dawncaller spends a lot of his time at the Royal Library in company of his pet fox Tulu. His four-legged friend eventually motivates him to take a stroll through Stormwind, leading him to the Gryphon Roost where he makes some new acquaintances. While tending to a depressive gryphon, he unconsciously activates his powers of the Void...
Series: BfA/SL: Interludes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2041546
Kudos: 4





	A stroll through Stormwind

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again!  
> Welcome to this second part of my new series, which takes place after the events mentioned in the previous series (BfA: Biografies); in between Patch 8.3 and Shadowlands Pre-Patch 9.0.1.  
> This episode will focus some more on my rogue and will further set his story up for what is to come in the Shadowlands…

_The Council of Silvermoon, which ruled over the elves of Quel’Thalas, entered into a secret pact with the Magocrat Lords of Dalaran. The elves told the Magocrat about the history of ancient Kalimdor and of the Burning Legion, a story which …_

Tulu’s repeated whimpering and prowling around his legs beneath the table drew Saewron’s attention away from the page of _The Guardians of Ti_ _r_ _isfal_ that was currently opened in front of him.

“What’s up with you, fluffy? Why are you so fidgety all of a sudden?”, he softly asked somewhere in between actual worry and slight annoyance caused by the interruption of his reading. He knew the story already, but, as so often, here too, some parts were slightly different in the Alliance version of the book than in the one he’d read in school.

At this moment, as if to emphasize his words, Tulu jumped onto his lap with dash and rose to her hind legs in an attempt to lick his face. In doing so, she accidentally pushed the _The Guardians_ further back onto the table with her back, making them bump against a stack of other books that toppled in return, and put the lit candle holder in the middle of the wooden table into a stagger.

Cursing, Saewron reached out swiftly to steady the flames atop their perch to prevent a disaster.

The culprit had already jumped from his lap again and run to the entrance of the library when he wanted to rebuke her. A low bark announced her position. Saewron shot an apologizing look to the guard beside the door near him, rearranged the books and then hastily rose and followed the little fox onto the cloister outside the library.

“Bloody abyss, you’re going to get me expelled from the library if you keep behaving like that!”, he grumbled at Tulu, when he reached her, to which she only replied with another bark and innocent, happy jumps in front of him. He sighed compliantly, his irritation already fading and ruffled her fur. “Yes, yes, I know, you didn’t do it on purpose”, he admitted, looking up and around, feeling slightly dizzy from standing up too fast. “What time is it, anyways?”

On cue, the belfry sounded, sending three resonating chimes through the city.

“What?! Afternoon already?” He’d completely missed midday. “I’m sorry. In that case, you’ve more than earned the right to grow restless.”

He stretched to banish the stiffness from his own limbs and then set out, shooing Tulu ahead. “Let’s take a stroll, that should settle you.” And would do him good, too, probably.

He entered the empty throne room and then turned right, descending the long corridor until they emerged from the keep out onto the steps that lead down into the city. In the Dwarven District he grabbed himself and Tulu something to eat on the go, setting off into the direction of the Cathedral Square once more.

He paused in the middle of the bridge right in front of the other city quarter and seated himself on the side wall, with Tulu jumping up to sit beside him. He consumed his meal without any interruptions, although he noticed some of the townsfolk – as usual – throwing glances at him in passing. A heavy cart loaded to the top with coal for the dwarven forges pulled by a team of two mules rattled by behind him when he brushed the last crumbs of the dumplings off his fingers. The splattering of water made Saewron look down into the canal right below him, where multiple colorful fish fought for the treats he’d just dropped. They were soon swallowed up though, and the maritime animals swam on, leaving only his now still reflection on the surface of the water.

Sometimes he was still startled by his own sight. Could one miss one’s own hair color? He wasn’t sure. Maybe he did. Maybe he didn’t. Mainly the deep blue looked unnatural in contrast to his former hazel hair and worked like a beacon to announce his otherness to everyone. He’d never been someone who dyed his hair in fancy colors to stand out. He’d heard that some ren’dorei had tried hair dye to achieve the opposite effect, but one Entropic Embrace had turned the color back to its original voidy self. At least his transformation had spared him of any tentacles… or eerie scars, which would only attract further attention. And then there where the constant shadows around their eyes. They all looked like a bunch of drug addicts. He had to stifle a sudden laugh at the irony, which probably would have brought him some stares, too. His had even deepened over the last couple of days. He hadn’t slept well. If it weren’t _the_ peculiar dreams disturbing his rest, then he had a hard time falling asleep in the first place.

An abrupt movement beside him followed by a short, scared animal sound and a splash made him jump to his feet in alarm. Tulu had obviously started fidgeting again and just taken an involuntary dive into the canal! He considered jumping right after her, but a second later she broke the surface of the water and started paddling in the direction of luckily nearby exit stairs.

He sprinted to receive her, effortlessly balancing atop the wall across the bridge and then jumping off at the Cathedral-Quarter-side, down to the byway and into the direction of the small pier. The fox shook of the water and then scampered up to him, joyful as ever. Saewron eagerly bent down and picked her up.

“You really make a habit of startling me today”, he chided, cuddling her in his arms, unmindful of her still wet fur soaking his clothes, “You know, a nudge would have sufficed, if you simply wanted to move on.”

–.o.O.o.–

They entered the Cathedral Square beside the City Hall, Tulu running ahead adventurously again. While moving towards the Cathedral, Saewron was once more taken in by the impressive building that reached far into the sky with its multitude of spires.

No, it wasn’t level with elven architecture, but the Cathedral of Light still conveyed an undeniable sense of power and glory. However, he contended himself with the outside view. In the past, he’d already once made the error of entering the building itself to take a further look at its architecture.

The brother who had been standing at the entrance to greet every visitor, had only taken one openly horrified look at him, screwed up his little speech and then waited nervously, observing every move the void elf had made, as if he had somehow expected him to… maybe suddenly explode or otherwise defile the building just by standing on holy ground like some kind of monster.

After this experience, Saewron had reevaluated Luthir’s former statement, that he expected to be killed on sight by the members of his childhood cult after his transformation. The rogue had attributed the harshness of the anticipation to the priest’s often exaggerating way of telling things, but if a common member of the main church in a capital city already reacted that badly, an outright attack by someone belonging to one of the more fanatical cults suddenly became rather plausible.

They circled the Cathedral once, only stopping to briefly enjoy the view across Stormwind Lake that sparkled like a freshly polished knife blade in the warm sunlight, before returning onto the fountain square from the other direction. Like each time since he’d first come the King’s capital as a member of the Alliance, a lot of night elves occupied the benches around the statue of Uther, the Lightbringer, or sat huddled together with depressed faces underneath the trees.

Whenever Saewron started to feel too much self-pity regarding everything that had happened to him and his family over the recent years, he only had to remind himself of the hopelessness emanating from the Darnassian Refugees to shake off the ugly, self-centered feeling. He wasn’t a normal commoner, he still had the education of a fighter and the equipment as well as the skill that was necessary to make the best of it. He at least could, in theory, earn back his former riches through his work, and his home – despite being lost to him – hadn’t been wiped from existence. If he felt bold, he could still travel there and walk right into it. Well, to _sneak_ right into it would probably be the wiser choice, but still.

He stopped on his way towards the passage leading into the direction of the Trade District to hand a couple of his remaining coins to a refugee, who kept a wary eye on a group of elven children playing some distance off.

“For the kids”, he commented.

As expected the tired mother nodded thankfully with a faint smile and he swiftly moved on. He’d made different experiences in the past. Not every night elf was happy to accept charity from someone who looked so much like exactly some of the people who had burned down their home. They had refused to take the coins from _one like him_ for themselves, chasing him away with rudeness. Since then he always looked for those refugees with children close by. So far that trick had always worked. No loving parent denied a gift for their most precious ones.

Arriving in the Trade District, he headed directly left through the side alley to avoid the dense crowd in front of the Counting House and the Trader’s Hall, until he reached the signpost that pointed over into the direction of the Old Town. Tulu had already passed the next gateway and ran towards the canal, but the red and gold banners of the Gryphon Roost flapping in the wind caught Saewron’s attention and made him falter in his steps.

A very old fascination awoke within him and he called his pet back with a whistle, moving straight on instead of left. Tulu overtook him yet again when he climbed the steps up to the flight point.

Right! Up until now he’d completely neglected the fact that every Alliance capital had a stable with gryphons, since those were their general air transport. Even in Kul Tiras he’d already flown a few times on their backs, but – occupied as he had been with his quests – he’d never allowed himself the time to properly inspect them. Now on the other hand…

He entered the Gryphon Roost, feeling an almost child-like excitement. Tulu immediately started to run back and forth between the occupied haystacks with their winged inhabitants, and Saewron observed her cautiously. It swiftly became apparent that the little fox was smart enough not to seriously provoke the much bigger predators, and after she started to mess about with an empty haystack, he himself turned his attention to the magnificent beasts.

They hadn’t lost any of the appeal to him since his childhood days in Aerie Peak. He wandered slowly from gryphon to gryphon, curiously examining them and offering a hand to sniff from time to time, when the eagle eyes of one of the beasts showed a hint of interest.

Nobody payed much attention to Saewron at first, since a lot of people regularly entered and left the flight point, arriving and departing on gryphon wings, or looking for a trade with Tannec Stonebeak, the Gryphon Keeper. After a while though, Bralla Cloudwing, the Flying Trainer, stepped beside him.

“Can I help ye somehow, laddie?”, she asked straightforwardly but not unfriendly, the typical dwarven accent thick on her tongue.

“Um… no”, he looked up from the black feathered gryphon in front of him, he’d only just started to examine, “That is, if you don’t mind me being around here. I happen to like gryphons very much and would like to spend some time with them.”

An expression he remembered very well from the past started to appear on the dwarf’s face, and he had to smile when she uttered similar words to the ones he was already expecting:

“Just rememba those beasts aren’t completely hand-tame like some pets fer children tae play with. Don’t blame it on me or tae animal if one snaps off yer finger. I warned ye!”

“I’m aware of that. Thanks for your concern though.”

To demonstrate the truth behind his words, Saewron shifted his attention back to the gryphon, while Bralla still lingered beside him skeptically. He waited patiently until the proud animal acknowledged his presence with a blink of its eyes, and then carefully held out his hand in front of its sharp beak. It took another while until the gryphon relaxed and nestled his head against Saewron’s hand, which brought him an approving look from the female dwarf. After that, the animal willingly allowed the void elf to move his hands through its feathers, from its head down its neck and onward to the spot where they passed over into fur.

“They still like getting stroked, especially in the right places”, the rogue commented smiling, while the gryphon spread its wings partially and cooed contentedly as a validation of his words.

Bralla laughed, loosing the last tension she’d still held in her posture. “How comes a blood… sorry, _former_ blood elf kno’s how tae treat a gryphon correctly?”, she asked, “As far as I kno’, hawkstriders don’t require much respect. They can be easily bribed or distracted with some shiny objects.”

And so he told Bralla about his childhood stay with the Wildhammer Clan at Aerie Peak during the Third War, to which he and his twin most likely owed their lives and where he’d first come in touch with gryphons.

“I see. Ye look older than ye are, then”, Bralla noticed, and the rogue nodded faintly blushing.

“My recent brush with the Void had that effect, yes.”

After that they kept chatting for quite some time, while Saewron first attended the black feathered animal some more and later moved on to others, until a flight training costumer required the dwarf’s attention.

Tulu had by now long finished her war with the haystack and had gained the idle Gryphon Keeper’s regard, who had started a small scaled fetch-game with the joyful fox on the unused launch pad in front of him. Saewron watched them relaxedly for some time, until he caught sight of one gryphon he’d completely overlooked thus far.

His roost was located separate from the others and almost hidden behind some piles of wooden boxes. When he moved over and crouched a short distance away in front of the curled up animal, Saewron expected it to be asleep, but the classically white-fawn colored gryphon had its eyes open. Still, nothing indicated that the winged predator noticed him at all. That wasn’t normal.

Troubled, Saewron rose once more, looking for Bralla, who just this minute returned to the Roost after having seen off her latest costumer. He moved over to her and inquired curiously, after her greeting smile:

“What’s up with the one back there?”

She didn’t need to follow his pointing gesture to know which gryphon he meant. She swiftly placed her helmet and flying goggles on a dust-covered shelf with some additional equipment, before moving back towards the gryphon together with the void elf.

“That’s Stormrider”, she introduced him to the animal’s name, halted in front of its resting place and glanced at it with a suddenly grim expression on her face, “We don’t kno’ what tae do with him anymore.”

“Is he sick?”

“In a way”, she sighed and this time the sadness in her tone was clear, “He’s lost his bonded rider a few days back. Ye kno’ what that means?”

Saewron hesitated, “I… am not sure.”

“Well, laddie”, she launched into an explanation, “Tae other gryphons ye see around here are all unbonded ones. Doesn’t work otherwise with animals that carry different riders around all tae time on flight routes. The ones from our dwarven gryphon rider squads, on tae other hand, they have fixed riders. Usually they even grow up with each other.”

“I see. He’s lost his… partner, or something like a close family member”, the rogue realized, interrupting Bralla, “So he’s just grieving?”

The dwarf stirred her head in something between a nod and a shake, “That’s tae problem there. Ye see, gryphons aren’t like any humanoid race. They can be very protective and loyal, but they don’t have tae same feelings as we do. Bonded gryphons are known tae often die soon after their riders. I fear that’s what will happen tae our Stormrider soon.” She spread her hands in a helpless gesture. “We’ve done all we could tae motivate him, but he’s not eating anymore. He hasn’t even moved in hours. At this stage, we can only aid him with a shelter for himself.”

Saewron first stared at her in shock and then once more at the poor gryphon. “Do you think he would mind if I stayed with him for a while?”

Bralla shrugged. “No, I guess not”, she faltered and then added: “But don’t promise yerself anything tae come o’ it.”

Saewron nodded, understanding the well-meant advice.

At first, the rogue only watched the gryphon, crouching in front of his roost similar to the way he’d done it before. When his legs started to ache from the strain, he sat down a little closer to the gryphon. Eventually he held out a hand to the animal, although he didn’t expect a reaction, and then touched the beast’s white head falteringly.

Stormrider blinked once lazily and rustled his feathers slightly, but that was it. Emboldened regardless, Saewron continued to stroke the gryphon’s head and neck.

“I think I know exactly what you are going through”, he said quietly a little later, “You see, I don’t quite believe her. I reckon you feel the same way we do. It doesn’t make much sense to me otherwise. Why would your kind be able to feel loyalty and affection for someone, but not disappointment and grief?”

He closed his eyes, concentrating on the touch of his caressing fingers on the gryphon’s feathers and the faint heaving of the beast beneath it.

“Maybe you just don’t know how to show these feelings… or what to do with them... and so they fester... and start to suffocate you.” His voice broke, and so he fell silent and simply imagined himself to share these feelings with the animal.

He pictured the gryphon’s emotions in his mind; a largely undisturbed sky, free to be explored on strong wings and supported by gentle updrafts, but with a towering black cloud formation rising up in front of him, which threatened his flight and slowly pulled him into a deadly vortex. He left the gryphon’s perspective and instead reached for the clouds with incorporeal hands, wiping them away like he would sweep the dust from the cover of an old book. They scattered, only to reform once more some distance off. Frustrated he followed, and tried again. This time he carefully enclosed the storm clouds with both of his incorporeal hands and then slowly pressed them together, until nothing remained. A prickling seemed to pass through his palms and when he opened his hands, nothing was left in between them aside from now clear sky. Contended with this corrected picture in his mind, he let himself drift back into the gryphon, continuing to share the now clear sky with him some more.

“What are ye doing?!” Bralla’s alarmed voice from somewhere behind him made Saewron snap open his eyes.

He immediately noticed that something was wrong. Without realizing it, he’d shifted into a kneeling position, holding the gryphon’s head in between his hands. His skin had changed to the same Void-blue as during an Entropic Embrace and it had somehow partially spread over to the animal in front of him. Aghast, he pulled his hands away, rose and stumbled back a few steps, only to drop to his knees once more, a sudden weakness gripping him.

The upset dwarf rushed into his direction, while he stilled struggled to get a hold of the powers of the Void, banishing them back to wherever they had come from.

Bralla hadn’t quite reached the void elf yet, when suddenly Stormrider moved, interposing himself between the both of them with a jump from his roost and bristling his neck feathers dangerously at the dwarf, who immediately halted.

Less impressed by the bird, but also disregarded at the moment, Tulu rushed past them like a violet-blue canon ball and stopped at Saewron’s side.

“Wow, easy there”, the dwarf said in a reassuring tone, looking at the gryphon, taking back a step and bowing her upper body submissively, “I’m not going tae hurt ye… or him.”

Saewron wasn’t sure whether Stormrider actually understood the words the dwarf said or if simply the intonation had calmed him, but either way, he now shifted his attention from Bralla to him. The rogue didn’t know exactly what he had to expect of the proud animal and so his heart continued to pound like mad.

Tulu started barking at the gryphon bravely who only uttered an answering crow which silenced the small fox and made her duck to the floor with the tail between her legs. Stormrider spread his impressive wings for a moment and shook himself, then lowered his head and gently tapped the fox’s forehead with his beak. She uncoiled her tail that immediately started wagging instead, then the fox rose and happily licked the gryphon’s beak once, before leaping aside.

Whatever conversation had passed between the animals, its outcome calmed Saewron, and some of his tension fell away.

Stormstrider only had to move a few steps to reach him. He tilted his feathered head sideways, regarding the void elf intensely with his eagle eyes for a spell and then lowered it once more, gently pushing it against the rogues chest.

Still slightly overwhelmed by what just had happened, Saewron lifted a shaking hand to Stormrider’s head, ruffling the white feathers.

“So… I guess, we’re all good again?”, he asked, not only addressing the winged animal, but also Bralla who still lingered behind the gryphon in a tense stance. His voice still shook worse than his hands did.

At the same time, the quick glance into the direction of the female dwarf also showed him Tannec further away. The Gryphon Keeper shooed the people who had noticed the commotion in the back of the Roost onward to continue on their paths, while keeping a weary eye on the troublemakers himself.

“Yeah, looks like it”, Bralla commented, smiled tightly and than added: “Can’t have been anything bad ye did, if Stormrider decided tae protect ye. And it worked, right?” She carefully stepped up beside the rogue and the gryphon, patting the animal on the furred flank.

“Um… yes”, Saewron agreed, only now fully realizing this himself in wonderment. Had the powers of the Void really just done something... good? Well, besides empowering his attacks from time to time. Had he actually managed to somehow take the bad feelings away from the gryphon’s mind?

“But I still don’t have any idea what I did exactly… or how I did it”, he admitted dazedly.

“Then ye should try tae find that out for yeself”, the dwarf suggested, “I’m already happy with the fact that ye seem tae have saved our Stormrider.”

–.o.O.o.–

This evening, Saewron fell into his bed at the Golden Keg completely drained from today’s events and his body pulled him down into sleep, before his thoughts could start spinning in his mind as usual.

In the middle of the night though, he abruptly woke from a hectic nightmare: _alarmed shouts, the hissing of a wyvern; something slamming into him; turmoil and desperate flapping; pain and tugging; a lightness and sudden terror; the rushing of air against feathers; a horrible crunch and bottomless dread_.

As soon as he opened his eyes, an overwhelming feeling of loss, failure and guilt washed over Saewron, almost taking his breath away. A part of him realized straightaway that his reaction wasn’t normal; it almost appeared as if he was affected by some kind of spell. The emotions – although not unfamiliar – felt foreign and bore no relation to a simple bad dream; which at the same time he already couldn’t quite remember anymore. The other, increasingly demanding part of him just wanted to curl up and cry, hiding from the world beneath the blanket.

The narrow bed-chamber was suddenly bathed in a low light for a short time, and Saewron only then noticed Tulu, whose fur had just changed with a flash from the more common purple into the Void-less gold and blond. She was whimpering repeatedly and pulling at the sleeve of the undershirt he wore for sleep. Agitated as she was, she’d probably tried to wake him for quite some time unsuccessfully, and since she’d never done this before during one of his common nightmares, that could only suggest one other thing: the fear he suddenly felt – and this emotion definitely was his own – kept the maelstrom of other feelings at bay for another moment.

Alarmed, he sat up, throwing back his blanket and examining his skin in the faint illumination mixed from street lamps and moonlight that fell through the curtain slits into the room. It was still hard to see in the twilight, but as feared, he’d turned Void-blue once again against his will.

At first, Saewron automatically reached for his potions, which he always kept near; his belt hanging on the bed post beside his pillow, but another realization made him hesitate. Nothing obvious except for the color shift of his skin was happening. And: there were no whispers.

Their absence in this situation was almost as eerie as their presence another time. Confused and upset as he felt, they normally would have pounced on him – easy prey – long ago. In that case though, the effect of the latest potion he’d consumed was either still active, or… or… why hadn’t he plummeted faster? He should have been able to at least catch his stubby companion, before he crushed into the ground!

Saewron finally yielded to the wave of alien emotions he’d barely held back thus far. Uncontrollable sobs started to rattle him, while he crawled back beneath the blanket, cuddling the helpless Tulu to his chest.

“It’s alright. Don’t worry”, he managed between two crying fits, in an attempt to calm mainly the little fox but also himself.

Only after several minutes did the riptide of failure mixed with guilt and bone-deep loss settle slightly and turn into a stream that was easier to navigate. Saewron reassuringly scratched Tulu’s ears while she licked the still freshly falling tears from his face. Aside from a few convulsive sobs that still occasionally gripped him, the weeping actually felt comfortable by now.

Slowly he also understood better what must have happened and he didn’t try to counteract his impulses anymore. It truly was all right. He wasn’t crying for himself, hence there was no need to feel ashamed or guilty. His own relief and exhausted tranquility grew. Still with that thought in mind, he soon nodded off.

–.o.O.o.–

When he woke the next day, with Tulu still curled up in his arms, he felt as refreshed and cheerful as he hadn’t had in a very long time. In a way, he still remembered what had happened the past night, but the foreign memories and feelings that had accompanied the whole episode were simply and totally gone from his mind. He felt virtually intoxicated, but without the subconscious dread of the morning after.

He stretched and tousled Tulu’s purple fur in a reassuring manner, before he rose energetic.

His euphoria persisted through their whole breakfast – which was rather a lunch, judging by the time – and only slowly started to cool down in the afternoon, when they set out in the direction of the Trade District and the Gryphon Roost once more.

Tulu mounted the stairs as if the place with its occupants at their top belonged to her personal territory. And maybe it did. Saewron, on the other hand, was suddenly less certain whether his presence would be as welcome as yesterday. When he’d left the day before, Tannec and Bralla had still appeared a little unsettled by his unintentional demonstration. He mainly wanted to check on Stormrider, to get another clue that could lead him to the confirmation of his theory regarding his – and the gryphon’s – strange experience with the powers of the Void.

It appeared that he’d given too many thoughts to the dwarves’ reactions yesterday though, because the moment Bralla Cloudwing spotted him at the entrance of the Roost, she waved to him and grinned in greeting.

“Well, well, well! Our gryphon spirit healer is back!”

Saewron smiled in relief and bowed jokingly in front of the dwarf. “And how’s my patient doing today?” “Great! His appetite is back and he just set off tae stretch his wings fer a spell.”

“Oh”, the rogue acknowledged the information with mixed feelings; on the one hand happy to hear of the gryphons recovery, on the other hand slightly disappointed by his absence.

“I can call him back, if ye want tae check fer yerself”, she offered.

He hesitated, “Um… I don’t want to inconvenience anybody. I can come back later.”

“Hogwash!”, the Flying Trainer exclaimed, walked over to Stormrider’s empty resting place and grabbed a small object from the holders on the wall beside it, “He’ll be happy tae see ye!”

With that she walked to the end of the launch pad, beckoning the void elf to follow her, and then lifted the small object – a whistle – to her lips. Her cheeks inflated and afterwards deflated again, without Saewron hearing anything, but only an instant later a familiar gryphon appeared in the sky above the Valley of Heroes.

Bralla had been right; the reunion with Stormrider proceeded pleasantly. Saewron didn’t even have to obtain the gryphon’s permission to touch him first, since the winged beast itself made the first move and approached him instead, obviously recognizing him. The rogue rewarded the gryphon’s trust and magnanimity with extensive caresses, delighted by the fact that the animal indeed had recovered so well and permanently. It seemed like his nightly experiences had payed off for both of them; and his assumptions had been correct, though he still would have to make out their full extent.

“What’s happening to him now? Will he rejoin the Gryphon Riders?”, Saewron asked out of curiosity, after the proud animal had taken to the air once more.

“Nah, they only accept bonded gryphons, and our Stormrider is too old fer another partner”, Bralla explained, “He will join our flight route squadron.”

“Unless ye want tae buy him!”, Tannec interjected, getting keen-eared whenever anything related to his business was mentioned, and he paused in his play with Tulu, regarding the rogue, while the little fox continued to pull on his gauntlet with her teeth buried in the sturdy leather.

Saewron had to admit his temptation, but in the end he shook his head. “No, currently I can’t afford another mount, and I don’t want to give Vulpy away.”

“Vulpy?”, Bralla repeated amusedly.

“My Vulpine Familiar”, the void elf explained, slightly flustered, “She was a present for my graduation as a rogue, and I was pretty drunk when I named her that night. Elsewise I probably would have come up with something a little less… childish.” He shrugged. “But since she seemed to like the name, I had to stick with it.”

“Well, maybe there is another option”, the female dwarf mused, still chuckling, “I could train Stormrider tae recognize a second whistle and give that one tae ye. Whenever he’s not on flight duty, we could switch out the usual signal receiver with yers and ye would be free tae summon him.”

“Are you sure? That’s a generous offer!”, Saewron noticed surprisedly.

Bralla darted a warning glance at Tannec, who had by now reclaimed his gauntlet and sighed compliantly, patting Tulu on her head, and admitted:

“Well, if it weren’t fer ye, we wouldn’t have an additional gryphon fer our squadron in the first place, so I guess that’s just fair.”

“Thank you for... everything”, Saewron told the female dwarf later on, about to depart from the Gryphon Roost, “I’m still sorry for what happened yesterday… at least the unintended, Void-involving part of it.”

Although something good had come of it this time, he still didn’t trust the Void in the slightest and his carelessness with its powers could as easily have cost him his newly made acquaintances.

“Oh shut up, laddie! Stop talking as if ye did something wrong”, the female dwarf fended off his words, “I know what ye are thinking, but there’s no need fer that.”

Saewron stared at her, taken aback.

“Ye haven’t seen the look on yer face after I yelled at ye yesterday”, Bralla explained, shaking her head, “Made me actually realize that it’s not only us normal folks that have tae get accustomed tae yer kin, but also yer kin that have tae get accustomed tae yerselves. It’s not right if we make that even harder by acting all warily.”

Moved by the exceptional empathy, Saewron searched for words, but the dwarf surprised him once more.

“C’mon, get down here. Ye may not be as bad as those night elves or draenei, but I still can’t hug ye properly like that!”

Quickly he knelt down with a chuckle and then heartily returned the embrace the dwarf gave him, a wide smile spreading across his face.


End file.
